ONE LINER:
Five
years after Irene, Nan, and Kay helped defeat an evil wizard, they
reunite to track down a mysterious wizard who has kidnapped Irene’s son.

SYNOPSIS:
Queen Irene's son,
Winter, is missing. His wizard teacher, Seever, has tried to find the
boy using his “far-away vision,” but it is blocked when he looks to the
north. Since only a powerful enchantment can block his sight, Seever
concludes an unknown wizard must have taken the young prince.

But aside from Winter, Seever and Kaza, there are no other wizards left alive.

Or are there?

Book
two in the Irene, Nan and Kay series, The Hunt for Winter, continues
the story of Irene and her best friends as they travel north in search
of the Crown Prince.

GUEST POST:

To Sequel, or Not to
Sequel?

By KC Cowan

When my writing
partner, Sara Cole, wrote the ending to our first fantasy novel, Journey to Wizards’ Keep (JTWK), we
thought, “Well, that’s that! We finished the book, it has a great ending and
we’re all happy.”

JTWK ends with
the reader not knowing if Queen Irene gives birth to a son, who would be a
wizard, or a girl, who would be mortal. The beautiful phrase Sara ended the
book on only tells you that a “newborn child cried for the first time.”

Great, right? However,
I could not stop thinking about Queen Irene. Did she have a wizard baby, or will Seever and Kaza be the last
wizards in the land? Suddenly, I knew exactly what happened and I sat down and
wrote the first chapter of a sequel. Irene has twins, a boy and a girl! After establishing that, I
jumped ahead five years (so we could have good interaction with her children)
and wrote a little bit about royal life in Cabbage and a brief catch-up with
Irene’s best friends, Kay and Nan.

I sent the
chapter to Sara and asked her if she wanted to keep writing. She immediately
responded with a firm, “Yes! And I know exactly what this book is about!” She
had the plot already in her head based on reading my first chapter! (That’s
what I love about working with Sara – she’s the plot queen!)

So, we were off
and running on book two in the Irene, Nan and Kay series with the title: The Hunt for Winter. Unlike the first
book, during which we never really actively discussed the plot and just sent
chapters back and forth to each other (almost like a game), this time Sara and
I collaborated much more closely. Several times a month we would get together
to discuss the story arc and what was, or was not working. As before, I acted
as overall “editor” and keeper of the timeline.

Since we were
writing this new book while I was still polishing and pitching JTWK, when we
came up with an idea for book two, such as the magical use
of mirrors, I could go back to the first book and add a short bit that would
help establish that idea earlier on! Not the traditional way of writing, I’m
sure, but it worked for us.

The Hunt for Winter became so long that at one point, I
said, “We need to end book two at a certain point and start book three.” So we
did. Look for the third novel in our series to come out in 2018, but in the
meantime, I hope readers will enjoy The
Hunt for Winter and the new adventures of Irene, Nan, and Kay as much as we did in writing them!

AUTHOR BIO: KC Cowan
has spent her life working in the media, as a reporter for KGW-TV,
KPAM-AM and KXL-FM radio, and as original host and story producer for an
arts program on Oregon Public Television. In addition to Journey to
Wizards’ Keep: Book One in the Irene, Nan and Kay saga, KC is also the
author of “The Riches of a City,” the history of Portland. She and her
husband, Glenn, split their time between Portland, Oregon and Tucson,
Arizona.

Sara Cole is an officer with Clackamas
County Sheriff’s Office, where she is the Crime Prevention Coordinator.
Sara provides public outreach to citizens on topics such as
Neighborhood Watch, ID Theft and Personal Safety. She also serves on
many community coalitions, and is a board member of the Crime Prevention
Association of Oregon. Sara is married and spends much of her free time
in her garden and enjoying her two grandchildren.